Chapter 102: Serpent year III

"Can you believe it? Gilderoy Lockhart, the Gilderoy Lockhart, is going to be teaching here this year!" Lavender exclaimed. Lavender and Parvati had been bouncing with excitement ever since they decided to join Padma in sitting with Harry, who was alone after Tonks went to meet up with some of her friends.

"Sadly no, I can't believe that fraud is teaching here," Harry commented, earning him a stink-eye from the two Lions.

"How can you call him a fraud? He's a great man," Parvati said.

"Did you even read the books?" he asked dryly, only to receive a round of nods. "Then you'll notice the spells aren't real - they're made up. I had my godfather try them, and he was an Auror, before you say he obviously wasn't casting them right. And if you check the books, you clearly see that the times and dates don't match up. In one book he's in Africa fighting a Nundu, while at the same time he's dining with vampires in another book. So unless he has a way to control time and be in two different places at once, he's obviously lying. Frankly most of the book is about fashion tips, not DADA. It's more of a storybook than teaching material."

"Whatever, we'll just see in class," Lavender stated with certainty.

"And you'll be disappointed with your hero," Harry answered calmly, earning himself another pair of evil looks.

"Are you going to try for Seeker this year, Harry?" Padma said, quickly changing the subject.

"Seeker or Chaser, I don't care which really since there are advantages to either position, but if it really came down to it I would prefer to be Seeker," he stated, thinking over the training he'd done with Sirius.

"Why Seeker?" Parvati asked, joining the conversation.

"It's the glory position in school because most of the games are decided by the Seeker. Most games at Hogwarts don't last very long, which doesn't give the Chasers much time to make an impact. But when you play at the national and international levels, Chasers are normally the deciding factors of the game. Since I probably won't have time to go 'pro' after I leave school due to my duties, Seeker is the better choice. Plus my father played Seeker from his second year on," he explained to Parvati.

"Slytherin will have a new Seeker this year, since Terence Higgs graduated," Parvati replied, ignoring Lavender's pouting. "I wonder who it will be this year?"

"Draco Malfoy will be the Slytherin Seeker. His father bought the team a set of new Nimbus 2001 brooms," he stated with certainty, remembering the meeting.

"How can you know?" Lavender demanded.

"Because I saw him buy a set of seven when I was in Diagon Alley. Why else would Draco need seven broomsticks? Unless he's that bad and keeps breaking them," Harry said, causing the girls to break out in giggles. "And he all but admitted to me in the store that he bought his way in, before his father intervened."

"That sucks," the twins said in unison.

Harry just shrugged and said, "Yeah it does, but Tracy told us last year that Draco was going to make a play for the spot. What can you do? It doesn't matter anyway - the guy probably sucks on a broom and will lose anyway.

"Why else would he buy his way onto the team without even trying out? If the spoiled brat was at least half-skilled, he would have tried out first and then arranged for everyone to get new brooms after he won his place on the team. It's what I would do," Harry said before giving Padma a wink, hinting at one of his schemes for the upcoming year. After all, both the Black and Potter families were shareholders in Nimbus Brooms - they owned around twenty percent each from when the two houses had a marriage alliance.

Even with his part-ownership of the Nimbus brand, he was tempted to back a new up-and-coming company called Fire Stream, just on the off chance they produced a popular broom. He had a meeting with the owners already set up over the Christmas break for the final talks. Who knew what would happen - after all, Nimbus was one of the five main broom providers in Europe, but most of its business came from Britain and Ireland. One could never know when a new broom or gold mine could appear with the right backing.

After all, all older companies eventually die out and get replaced with new and improved ones. Fire Stream could very well replace Nimbus in the end, and frankly it was better to get his foot in the door now while the owners and developers needed money, rather than later when they were already successful.

Looking out the window, he realised that they were already halfway through their journey to Hogwarts. Time really did fly by when you were having fun, and he still hadn't been visited by Daphne and Tracy. He thought about trying to hunt them down, but the train would arrive at Hogsmeade station soon, and he would get his chance to see them there. Seeing the girls were talking about *Witch Weekly*, which he had no interest in, he pulled out a book.

"Don't mind me, ladies, I'm going to read for a bit," he announced.

"Runes?" Parvati questioned, obviously not knowing his interest in them.

"Yeah, runes are one of the most important areas of magic. Understanding them can open up so many different branches of magic," Harry responded.

"What do you mean?" Lavender probed.

"Lavender, almost all permanent types of magic are based on runes, and higher-level spells require wand movements in rune formations. The clothes you have on right now even have basic runes to extend the life of the charms on them so they last several years instead of months," he lectured.

...

(Sometime later – Great Hall)

*It's good to be back,* Harry thought. He had missed this place rather a lot, even with all the annoying people in it. Choosing to take a seat next to Terry, he joined in on the small talk so he could catch up on each other's summer events until dinner got underway.

"Hi Terry, did you have a good summer?"

"Fine, Harry. You?"

"Eventful. I'm guessing you didn't see the *Prophet* a couple weeks ago then."

"Nope, I was in Spain enjoying the sun," showing off his tan to the table, "So what happened?" the boy probed.

"In short, I got my godfather cleared of false murder charges, whilst at the same time causing a shift in the balance of power in the Wizengamot by breaking the political back of the Malfoy family," he explained to the stunned boy while getting the attention of most of the surrounding Ravenclaws.

"Really?" Terry asked.

"Really," Harry stated with certainty.

"Wow!"

"Yeah, not bad for a summer. It's also why the older members of Slytherin house are looking at me like a piece of meat, and why Draco is glaring at me," he said before waving at the blonde-haired Slytherin, causing him to go red with rage. *Good times,* he thought.

"Anything else?" Terry asked, whilst trying to hide a chuckle.

"Oh, I no longer have to attend Potions class, since all my work will be independently marked by an independent official." At that, Terry seemed to freeze up, along with the rest of Ravenclaw house.

"How?" Su Li demanded immediately.

"Long story short, I'd had enough of Snape being an arse and sabotaging my work. So starting after Christmas, I recorded each offence and eventually had enough serious charges - such as sabotaging my examination marks - and the evidence to prove them that I could easily get him fired. After that I presented a list of demands, effectively saying they would be met or the *Prophet* would find out, and you can guess what happened next," he stated, thinking that he didn't have to say anything else.

"So what happened next?" Terry asked.

Mentally sighing at having to explain such a simple thing as blackmail, Harry started re-evaluating whether befriending Terry was a good choice, despite the boy being talented at Potions.

"Terry, think about it. He's been teaching here for over a decade and has made a ton of enemies who now have jobs and have their own influence. How many students has he bullied or ruined their dreams and career choices, who now work in places like the Ministry or the press? Can't you imagine what would happen if that story got put on the front page of the Prophet ? There would have been a public outcry for him to be fired, and the Headmaster and the Board of Governors would have no choice but to do just that, whilst Hogwarts would be publicly disgraced," Harry decided to make no mention of Mind Arts during his explanation of the deal.

"Wow."

"Yes, so in a sense I blackmailed the staff. Snape can do nothing to me - no points taken, no detention, nothing - without it being approved by another Head of House," he stated with a cocky smile at effectively having a free pass for the next six years, since he was a favourite amongst the staff. All the staff knew of the bad blood between him and Snape now, so they would be more inclined to favour him as long as he didn't do anything stupid and obvious.

He received several comments of "Well done," as well as other comments of approval from his surrounding housemates. Looking over at the great doors to see the Deputy Headmistress heading out to greet the new students and give her welcome speech.

"Thanks, but now I think we should calm down - the first years have arrived," Harry said while wondering how many new Ravenclaws there would be this year.

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